Oh Mercy! We have had it too good I think..... To have all your grown kids so close to home is a treasure. I never knew how long that would last. I am finding out just how long right now......
He left today for his next big thing --Med school. We knew this date was coming, but we weren't ready for that jagged little pill. Mom's dose was a little unfair... bigger, more jaggedy, more painful. Somehow in all the jaggedy-ness, the good part of the hurt eventually won the day. That put us quickly into the "Valley of Despair" on the Emotional Change curve.
Landon is a great gatherer. He specializes in them. He gathers his friends, he gathers his siblings, he gathers his family. The idea that they won't happen very often now seems unbearable.
Yet....there has to be a transition. Milestone markers in our life's highway that define measures of distance- and hopefully progression as well.
The mile marker right now for Landon is Med school. A significant milestone. One might say a life changing one. One that will present the most challenge and stretch of his intellectual life, in all the right ways. Is he ready? On paper I would say absolutely Yes! It has been a long wait and he is well prepared. I could also say is being ready for med school like being ready to have your first kid..... Who is ready for that? Most of us not I think. Much like raising a little kid, you just figure it out. You lower your head, commit and lead with your heart and hope like crazy that you don't mess up too much. I wouldn't be surprised if he feels the exact same way about school.
We know something he doesn't though.... We can see a bit further down the road than maybe he can. While he might contemplate all the things he needs to do, we know all the things that he will become, at least in our mind's eye we do. I wonder what God sees?
I got a glimpse as I put my hands on his head and gave him a father's blessing. Precious glimpses into eternity, of what could be.
We will miss the innovative, creative flavored soda's, the fast food runs, the golfing fun, the games, the travels, the laughter, the crazy dancing, the incessant impromptu soccer games, pickleball, Mario Kart, guitar songs, the movies and the great talks. We ended with Italy.... what an amazing trip. It wouldn't have been the same without you. Memories that we will live of off in between seeing you occasionally.
So, as we slowly draw back this arrow, that is you, and as we try to hold as steady of a bow as we can as we release that arrow, with all our hopes and dreams packed with you in flight, knowing the direction is sure and the target is right, the words of Gibran come flooding through. Know our love is profound and know we have exceeding faith that you will be all you are needed to be.
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.
